Brussels, 30 June 2011 - The EU and the Republic of Indonesia signed on 29 June 2011 in Brussels an aviation agreement which will restore a sound legal basis for developing future aviation relations between Indonesia and EU Member States.

This "horizontal agreement" will place several provisions in the bilateral air services agreements between 19 EU Member States and Indonesia on a sound legal footing by ensuring compliance with EU legislation.

Most importantly, it will remove nationality restrictions in bilateral air services agreements between EU Member States and Indonesia. It will thereby allow any EU airline to operate flights between Indonesia and any EU Member State in which it is established, where a bilateral agreement between the EU Member State concerned and Indonesia already exists and traffic rights are available1.

The agreement represents an important step towards strengthening aviation relations and enhancing overall cooperation with Indonesia, while encouraging traffic between the EU and Indonesia. Air transport is crucial for relations between the EU and Indonesia, linking people, cultures and businesses.

Currently, there are 46 such horizontal aviation agreements with partner countries worldwide. More than 900 bilateral air services agreements have already been modified by the joint efforts of the European Commission and EU Member States to replace nationality rules with the principle of EU airline designation.

This means that all EU carriers will be able to be designated by any of the 19 Member States with which Indonesia has bilateral agreements – but they will only be able to fly if there are unused traffic rights in these agreements. It therefore means that EU carriers will not be able to fly from those Member States with which Indonesia does not have bilateral agreements.